I drove down to Castroville, TX (about 15 miles East of San Antonio) from Fort Worth where my friend has a variety of creatures. This one though was one of the most intriguing! Yes, it will draw blood as it has from him. However, he has had it long enough to where it will crawl on your arm without biting (although it looks like it is about to at times). It's mouth is fierce looking and kind of reminds me of the movie "Alien" when it eats. We fed it a piece of plum, and it chomped much of it away in no time. And you can also see it's lungs fill with a good amount of air while breathing. It seems fairly intelligent, when you observe it's mannerisms, as it seems to be thinking of and acting on it's immediate surroundings.

This is truly one of the coolest bugs I've seen around the Texas Hill Country, even when I was living in S.A. and exploring around with my buddies.

I went ot move this thing off the mirror at Inks Lake and it latched onto my finger, began biting me and when I shook it loose it went after my arm. I brushed it off and it went after my face.

I finally placed it into a jar and went to show my friend from PA and it began posturing and hitting the side of the plastic jar.

I let it go later and it began posturing again. No one believed me until she verified my story and came across your site.

Thanks for the information.

Thom Humphreys
Wharton, Texas

Really cool! It looks however, like this is a female. The protrusion on the rear of the abdomen is an ovipositor.